Film maker Roland Emmerich joins the witch hunt against William
Shakespeare. He jumps on the Edward de Vere bandwagon with his
new film Anonymous claiming Edward de Vere of Oxford, is the true
author of William Shakespeare's plays.

An online article quotes :

Emmerich explores the controversial theory that the famed playwright
did not, in fact, write his own work. The belief is that the works
credited to Shakespeare were actually written by Edward de Vere,
of Oxford. IMDb currently has the movie slated for a 2010 release,
but we've known little more than that until now.

Emmerich revealed in an interview with Empire Online that his cast
is starting to fill out. Vanessa Redgrave, David Thewlis and Rhys
Ifans are all on board; Redgrave will play Queen Elizabeth, "Harry
Potter" star Thewlis will play William Cecil "old and young," and
Ifans will play the Earl of Oxford, the controversial figure who
is believed to be the real author of the Bard's plays.

"It's a true English cast and I'm really proud of it," Emmerich said
in the interview. "Thereís 12 main characters and 20 or 30 other
characters, and each of the characters is really good." He describes
the story as a "historical thriller" split primarily between two
factions.

"Itís the Tudors on one side and the Cecils on the other, and in
between [the two] is the Queen. Through that story we tell how the
plays written by the Earl of Oxford ended up labelled 'William Shakespeare.'"